Blog 6: The messages to the seven churches

Usually these seven messages are called ‘letters’, but they give no evidence of being such. They are oracles from the divine, exalted Jesus to His people in seven of the many churches spread across Asia Minor. Even the world ‘church’ needs qualification. There are no known church buildings in Christendom before 250 AD. Christians met in house groups. Within cities they had an overseer, also translatable as bishop or elder. The growth of bishops responsible for a city or other geographical area became widespread in the Second Century. Each time Jesus addresses one of the seven churches He uses a different description of Himself.